


You Deserve Each Other

by givemesomewings



Category: Daredevil (TV), The Punisher (TV 2017)
Genre: But only a little, Character Death, Fratt - Freeform, I don’t know what else to tag, M/M, Major Character Injury, No Beta, Not really a lot of dialogue, Plot Twists, Post Punisher season 1, Post-Season/Series 01, Post-Season/Series 03, Sad Ending, Smut, Violence, Whump, post Daredevil season 3, sorta - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-08
Updated: 2019-10-09
Packaged: 2020-11-27 13:58:02
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 2
Words: 3,268
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20949455
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/givemesomewings/pseuds/givemesomewings
Summary: It all seemed like some cruel joke, that Frank’d be here in the same situation again. Everything he cared about laid out in front of him. The same man who destroyed him so many years ago, set to take it all away from him. Except this time Frank could stop him. He could do something about it. And he would. He fucking would.





	1. The Beginning of the End

**Author's Note:**

> This is set in an alternate version of S2E10 of the Punisher. Frank and Curtis are set up to invade Valhalla, except with a slightly different plan and a totally new objective: to save Matt.

Red lie mostly limp in Russo’s arms as he was dragged backwards across the rooftop. Bill had one arm wrapped around Red’s bruised torso, holding him up as a human shield. The other arm was stretched over Red’s shoulder, a gun pointed directly at Frank. He had the craziest of smiles, if you could even call it that, stretched across his ugly Goddamn face. If it were any other day, he’d smile at the memory of dragging Bill’s ugly mug down that shattered mirror, listening to his screams as his skin was torn to shreds by a million pieces of broken glass. Not today.

It was a small victory for Frank, getting to watch him bleed out on the floor of that carousel. The one thing Bill cared about most in the world, destroyed in a matter of seconds. He had done the same to Frank, all those years ago. Taken Frank’s heart, the one thing in his miserable life he had gotten right, and snatched it away from him in the cruelest of ways in the briefest of moments. And now here Billy was, doing it all over again.

It all seemed like some cruel joke, that Frank’d be here in the same situation again. Everything he cared about laid out in front of him. The same man who destroyed him so many years ago, set to take it all away from him. Except this time Frank could stop him. He could do something about it. And he would. He fucking would.

Frank trained his own gun on Russo and stepped toward him a few steps, forcing Russo backward. Just a few more steps and he could end this.

“Drop him, Russo!”

“Not until you drop that gun, Frankie!”

“Not in this lifetime, you son of a bitch. Drop him now.”

Russo roughly repositioned Red, jarring him out of his barely-conscious state enough for him to moan in pain.

Frank took in the fresh bruises on Red’s chest. The blood caked on his wrists from the chains Bill used to lock him up. Anger flared in his chest and he roared.

“Goddamnit, Bill! Leave him out of this! This is between me and you!”

Russo shook his head as his smile slipped away and was quickly replaced by one of sadness. Of rage.

“There is no ‘me and you’, Frank. Not anymore. You’ve taken everything from me. Everything!” Bill choked back a sob as he screamed. “My face! My entire fucking life! You did that to me! And I don’t even know why! I was supposed to be your friend!”

“You know why, you piece of-“

“I don’t, Frank!” Bill yelled desperately. “I don’t!”

Red shifted against Russo’s chest, his face twisting slightly. But it looked less like an expression of pain and more like confusion. Russo roughly tightened his grip.

“Watch it, Russo!” Frank warned. “I’ll never trust another word out of your Goddamn mouth.”

Russo’s face twisted into something even uglier than it had been before. Frank slowly advanced toward him.

“You were never my friend, you slimy piece of shit. You’re nothing but gutter trash, trying to hide who you are behind a fucking expensive ass suit and a mountain of cash. Well, you’re nothing, Bill! Nothing! You’re a Goddamn traitor and a liar -“

“Shut up!” Bill screamed. Tears pouring out of his eyes, catching and pooling in the zig zag of scars across his face.

“- and I cannot wait to ruin the rest of your Goddamn face and do what I should have done a long time ago.”

Billy stared at him, wild-eyed and frenzied. He slowly moved his gun away from Frank and pressed it to Red’s temple.

“Goddamnit, Bill! I’ll kill you! I swear I’ll do it right now!”

Frank inched forward a little more, barely remembering to follow his makeshift plan. Russo stepped backward slowly. Just a few more steps.

“You’d kill me. For him?!” Billy gestured toward Red with his head. “I was supposed to be your friend, Frank! Why is this guy so important? What is he that I’m not?”

Frank froze. Moments flashed behind his eyes of him and Red lying in Red’s apartment. Silk sheets pooled around their waists as he wrapped his own hand around Red’s throat.

_Red urged him on as Frank thrusted into him over and over. Harder and harder. He watched Red’s perfect lips twist into a wicked smile. It was in moments like these that he could really let the devil out._

_Red loved the rush of a good fistfight, taking pleasure fr_om _getting knocked down just as much as he did from knocking down the scumbag pieces of shit he wasted his time on. But what he loved more than anything was this. Being able to be who he was, in the most intimate of ways with someone who truly knew him._

_Yeah, his lawyer friend knew him. Had known him for most of his life, all the important parts anyway. Even_ _Page knew him. Loved him too. But this was different._

_As Red let his head roll backward in ecstasy and Frank dove forward to kiss and bite roughly at his neck, Frank knew that this moment was something Red could only find in few people. That Frank himself had only found briefly in one other person. Here, in this bed, in_ _Frank’s arms, against Frank’s chest. Whether it be from a right hook or a French fucking kiss, Red was able to be all of himself. He didn’t have to put on a mask to feel free, or slide on his shades to feel normal, presentable to the world. Here, he could be himself without being afraid of hurting or scaring the ones he loved. A Man Without Fear._

_Because Frank could not only understand that need inside of him, but he admired it. That need to save, to fight. Because he felt it, too._

_Red clawed down his back, leaving painful evidence of what they’d done together. It was a love letter to Frank, saying everything that neither of them had the strength or the courage to say in words. One that he could feel later._

One that he could feel every time his shoulder tensed under his kevlar whenever Russo’s gun pressed roughly to Red’s head.

“He’s everything, you piece of shit,” Frank said softly, somehow sounding more menacing than when he yelled. “Now let him go. Last warning.”

Billy looked slowly from Frank to Red before more angry tears formed in his eyes.

“I lost my best friend, Frankie. Maybe the only one I had in the world,” he kept staring down at Red as he spoke. “Maybe it’s time I remind you what that feels like.”

Frank roared. “You drop him right now, you braindead fucking circus freak! I swear I’ll put you down!”

Russo turned his gun away from Red and trained it on Frank. He slowly stepped backward toward the edge of the building, taking Red with him, walking right into the line of sight of Curtis’ sniper rifle. He choked back another sob before speaking.

“I’m sorry, Frankie.”

He stepped onto the ledge with his back facing the street below him. Red slowly reached up and grabbed the arm Russo had around his chest, to steady himself.

Before Russo could let himself fall backward into the ground so many stories below them. Before he could turn Red into an all-too-similar reminder of that day in the park. Before Frank could join them on the street, and hold Red’s face together in his hands, watch his life spill out of the cracks in head and through Frank’s fingers onto a blood-spattered ground. Before Russo could kill Frank for the last time, Frank yelled into his earpiece.

“Take the Goddamn shot, Curt!”

The bullet sailed through the night, across the space between the two rooftops, right toward Russo’s head. But a split second before Russo finally got what was coming to him, Red tightened the grip he had on Russo’s arm.

He used all of his strength to yank Russo off of the ledge, out of the way of the bullet and onto the floor of the rooftop.

Frank ran forward and kneeled next to where Red had fallen. He gathered Red into his arms and cupped his face in his hands. Red came to, shifting slowly and opening his eyes. He moved his sightless gaze somewhere above Frank’s head and weakly gripped Frank’s bicep.

Curt yelled into his earpiece, loud enough to be heard from across the rooftop.

“What the fuck happened?”

Frank didn’t answer him, he couldn’t. He just looked over at Russo’s unconscious body, and then back to Red.

“What’d you do, Red? What the fuck did you just do?”


	2. The End of the Beginning

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> “I just wanted to help him. I wanted to help you,” he sighed. “ I’m sorry you can’t- I’m sorry you refuse to see that... I’m sorry you don’t see that that makes you just as much of a monster as he is.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is set in an alternate version of S2E10 of the Punisher. Frank and Curtis are set up to invade Valhalla, except with a slightly different plan and a totally new objective: to save Matt.

“What’d you do, Red? What the fuck did you just do?”

Red blinked slowly up at nothing. He took several shallow breaths before speaking.

“You all good, man?” Curt spoke directly into Frank’s ear.

“Who’s that?” Red panted, slowly. 

“Don’t worry about it, Red. He’s a friendly,” Frank spoke softly as he held Red’s face in his hands.

Frank looked over at the rooftop Curt was splayed across. Frank gave him a quick nod and responded.

“All good, Curt. Standby.”

“Alright...” Curt said skeptically. “You know I’m right here, Frank.”

“I know you are, Curt. I know you are.”

Frank readjusted Red so that he could lean against his chest. Red deflated a bit, soaking in Frank’s scent and the feeling of the firm body against his back. He found comfort in Frank’s steadiness after everything that had happened. 

After a few long seconds, Red spoke.

“He... He wasn’t lying, Frank,” Red said raggedly.

Frank froze for a split second. He stared down at Red, as if not understanding him.

Red cleared his throat and slowly pushed away from Frank so that he could face him.

“Frank, did you hear me?” Red said between quick gulps of air. “I said he’s telling the tr-“

“I heard you, Red. I heard you the first Goddamn time.”

Frank’s expression remained the same as he stood up and looked down at Red. He shifted his gaze back to Russo’s body. He strode toward him as Red scrambled to his feet. 

Red stepped in front of Frank and placed his hands on his chest.

“Frank, you told me that he had lost his memory. He doesn’t know what he did. I heard his heartbeat! He was telling the truth.”

“No, Red. I told you that crackpot doctor said he lost his memory.” 

He looked down at Red’s hands on his chest. Frank decided not to move him aside just yet. He figured Red wouldn’t want to touch him at all, after he did what he was about to do, so he soaked up as much contact now as he could.

“And I trust that bitch just about as far as I could throw her.”

“No, Frank. I heard him. He... He’s clearly unhinged. And he believes what he was saying,” Red said, gesturing to Russo’s body with one hand. “His life... Helping him is more important than your revenge, Frank. You know that.”

Frank just stared past Red’s head into the night. He sighed heavily. He wasn’t in the mood for another sermon. Especially not now.

“Move, Red. Now.”

“No,” Red said firmly. He planted his feet in the ground.

“I won’t let you.” Red’s hands on his chest stopped feeling like a lifeline and turned into something closer to a barrier. 

Red was still wobbly on his feet and clearly not up to a fight. Frank snatched both of Red’s wrists in his grip. Frank looked down at Red, irritation sketched across his own features. 

“I said move, Goddamnit.”

Frank threw Red’s entire body against the edge of the rooftop, where Bill had stood just minutes ago.

Frank grabbed his gun from where he’d dropped it a few feet away.

He pointed it toward, Russo. He didn’t bother uttering his mantra this time. Bill wasn’t even worth that.

Before he could pull the trigger, Red threw a rock at Frank’s gun and knocked it out of his grip.

Frank roared as he stomped over to where Red was slouched, still in the same spot Frank had thrown him in earlier.

As Frank approached him, he grabbed him up by his shoulders. Red panted in his face, determination written across every muscle in his body, across his perfect face. The face Frank was trying really hard not to smash against the ledge of this rooftop.

“Stand down, Red!” Frank yelled, his mouth nearly pressed against Red’s, as close as they were.

Red responded by quickly knocking Franks’s hands away. Just as fast, Red lifted his leg to knee Frank in the stomach. As Frank doubled over, Red kicked one barefoot against his chest and sent Frank stumbling backwards. Fuck, he should know by now not to underestimate Red, even in this state.

Red used the opportunity to throw his spent body toward Russo’s unconscious one.

Frank rolled toward his gun and picked it up in one smooth motion. He was kneeling as he pointed it toward both Red and Russo’s body.

Red was kneeling in front of Russo, his hand stretched toward Frank in a placating gesture. Urging him to stay back.

“The cops are already on their way, Frank. We need to go.”

Frank got to his feet, his gun still trained on Red. 

“You need to go, Red. I’m right where I need to be.”

Red looked exhausted as he continued to hold his hand out toward Frank. He licked his lips and spoke calmly.

“Frank-“

“Goddamnit! Fuck you, Red! Alright, Fuck you!” Frank fumed. “Move or you’re going with him.”

Red didn’t look at all impressed as he slowly got to his feet, making sure to stay in between Frank and Russo.

“You know I can hear your heartbeat, too, Frank.”

Frank rolled his eyes internally and let his anger wash over him anew. He flashed Curt a quick signal with one of his hands. He looked over at Curt and Curt gave him a barely-perceptible nod.

Red continued to stare at Frank, still unsteady on his feet. He gave no indication that he could “sense”, or whatever the hell he does, any of Frank’s more subtle movements. Red opened his mouth to make another useless plea. Frank cut him off.

“Hear this, you son of a bitch.”

Frank pulled the trigger. His bullet sailed toward Red. Red did some half-assed ninja flip through the air barely dodging the bullet meant for his shoulder.

As he moved through the air, Curt fired his rifle. The bullet sailed through the air and landed in Red’s lower leg.

He screamed and seemed to fall instantly out of the air. He hit the ground and Frank walked slowly over to him. He spoke slowly and deliberately as he approached Red.

“You know, you and Russo,” Frank whispered as he looked down at Red’s form. “You deserve each other.”

Red was gripping his calf as he looked at Frank, a fire burning in his glassy eyes. Frank sneered at him as he himself shook, rage coursing through his veins.

He reached down and gripped Red’s wrist in one hand. This time putting pressure on the wounds Billy’s restraints had left there. Red grimaced and groaned softly, but he didn’t yell. He wouldn’t give Frank the satisfaction. 

Blood trickled down Red’s arm as Frank pulled him to his chest. Red awkwardly tried to balance on his one good leg.

Frank crashed their lips together for a long moment, so much emotion beginning to form behind his eyes. Just as he felt Red begin to kiss him back, Frank threw him back onto the ground. Red couldn’t help the scream the escaped him this time.

“You disgust me, Red.”

Red looked furious as they resumed their face off. Frank kept his eyes trained on Red as he pointed his gun behind himself and toward’s Russo’s body. He pulled the trigger once. Twice. Three times.

The sirens were close enough to be heard now. 

“Frank, we need to go, man,” Curt said. Frank could hear Curt packing up his rifle as he spoke.

“You get out of here. I’ll meet you back at the trailer,” Frank said, his eyes still glued to Red.

“Frank-“

“Get out of here, Curt.”

Several moments passed before Curt finally responded, telling Frank to make sure he brought his ass home and made his own exit.

Frank finally took a step toward Red. He reached down to help him up.

“Come on, Red. You need to get patched up.”

Red smacked his hand away and got to his feet, albeit pretty shakily. He tested his bad leg a few times before placing his foot gingerly on the ground. It seemed like the shot was as clean as possible. Through and through with a lot less blood than Frank had expected.

Frank rolled his eyes outwardly this time and let out an annoyed grunt. 

“Don’t be stupid, Red,” he said harshly.

“Fuck you, Frank.”

Red began to limp away toward a fire escape. He apparently thought he’d be able to make it back to his place before the cops showed up. That or he was just stubborn. Either way, a small part of Frank hoped that he wouldn’t be fast enough. That he’d be apprehended and there’d be some piece of evidence that proved that Red was the man that Frank had the honor of getting to experience in the dark of night, and a couple of mornings afterward, for what was only a few months but felt like a lifetime. That Red would be off the streets and Frank could finally do away with pieces of shit like Bill in peace.

Frank waved his hand at Red’s retreating form in exasperation. He turned away from Red and began to walk in the opposite direction, making sure to step as hard he could onto Bill’s corpse on his way out. 

“Frank,” Red said. His voice was calm but Frank could sense the pain hidden beneath his name. In the way Red had said it like a curse. Frank stopped walking but didn’t turn around to see Red’s face, assuming he had even turned around himself.

“I don’t... I don’t deserve Russo,” he said, sounding like he was trying to convince himself as much as he wanted to convince Frank. “I don’t deserve what he did to me.”

Frank didn’t turn around, but he was sure Red could hear the sharp uptick of his heart.

“I just wanted to help him. I wanted to help you,” he sighed. “ I’m sorry you can’t- I’m sorry you refuse to see that... I’m sorry you don’t see that that makes you just as much of a monster as he is.”

Frank tensed angrily before resuming his retreat, his steps faster and more irate than before.

“I’m gonna put you away, Castle!” Red yelled as Frank got further away.  
“The next time you pull that trigger will be your last.”

The flashing lights of the patrol cars began to bounce off of Frank as he reached the opposite end of the rooftop. 

“You try that, Red,” Frank said under his breath, knowing Red could hear him. “I’ll be waiting for it.”

He finally turned around to see that Red had already gone. He shook his head and scoffed as he began a quick descent down the fire escape on the side of the building.

Feeling the burn of the cuts on his back with every step he took.

**Author's Note:**

> so, this was randomly written at like 5 am on my phone because my laptop’s broken. hopefully it makes some sort of sense. 
> 
> i would love feedback on this, so if you have any please respond and feel free to hmu if you want to beta the next chapter or any (possible, pretty unlikely) future works. this is my first frank/matt fic and also my first fic EVER. i hope did these two justice.
> 
> hmu on tumblr/twitter! @maniskordaze


End file.
